Collective reach makes CTV key in regional India, says MiQ CCO Varun Mohan

MUMBAI: It is no secret that family is one of the strongest factors driving consumer decision making in India. The modern Indian household is no longer driven by singular decision makers like twenty years ago, but instead has split into every member’s preferences playing a role. For marketers, this presents a novel situation – requiring fragmentation of their messaging, but also presenting an opportunity to build multilateral brand appeal with members from different demographics and age groups within the same household.

This is where the Connected TV (CTV) revolution offers one of its most powerful messaging advantages. While other digital screens cater to individual tastes, the living room TV remains one of the few common spaces where grandparents, parents and younger viewers still come together, regardless of their comfort with technology. And as more homes upgrade to smart TVs, the CTV platform is inheriting this reach in the shared viewing environment – turning it into a uniquely powerful stage for brands, where a single message can shape the perspective of multiple decision-makers at the same time.

Over the past year, we have seen CTV adoption surge across India, supported by affordable smart TV options and growing OTT content across regional languages. As this footprint expands into Tier 2 and 3 markets, its value proposition is evolving – it is now a platform that combines the cultural familiarity of traditional television with the precision of digital reach. Unlike mobile advertising, which fragments audiences into isolated moments, CTV brings the household back into a shared media experience that naturally encourages conversation, influence and consensus.

This collective reach is especially important outside major metros – as family viewing habits remain stronger among regional audiences in Tier 2 & 3 cities. When a brand message plays during a popular regional film or show, it reaches multiple age groups and purchasing roles at the same time, creating a unified base of awareness that isolated channels alone cannot replicate. The large-screen environment of CTV also drives stronger attention – with clearer and more vivid visuals and focused messaging versus the fleeting nature of rapid scroll ads – to help brands deliver richer storytelling. This makes a much stronger impression for categories like appliances, automobiles, consumer electronics and home improvement where purchases are often discussed collectively, influencing the entire household’s perception in a single exposure.

For advertisers, this shift demands a different planning lens. CTV excels at building salience, cultural relevance and household-level memory structures. The most effective campaigns treat CTV as the spark that introduces an idea to the family; and use mobile, social and retail media to convert individual intent afterwards. CTV thus lays the foundation for that multi-layered path to purchase. Brands are also increasingly producing content in multiple languages, tailoring narratives to reflect local culture and festival moments – fitting naturally with household viewing patterns in non-metro markets.

For the regional household market, CTV offers precision and scale, without losing cultural depth. As aspirational consumption grows within India’s regional markets, CTV’s collective reach presents a unique strategic advantage that marketers can build on towards a new type of communication – one that shapes perceptions across generations and will shape the next phase of India’s consumer growth story.